Community Engagement Scholars Program:

Background

Increasingly, across the country,
institutions of higher education have been taking steps to
become more civically engaged members of their local communities. As
part of these efforts, programs supporting and expanding
service-learning—like the Community Service-Learning Center at the University of Minnesota—have steadily gained
momentum as colleges and universities re-examine their role in
educating students for citizenship. Concurrently, many institutions are
also increasingly developing programs to recognize students for high
levels of involvement in community service and service-learning.

In
2000, the University of Minnesota's formation of the Task Force on Civic Engagement,
later renamed the Council on Public Engagement, identified civic
learning as a crucial aspect of the University's efforts to revive its
public purpose and to renew its contemporary land-grant identity. As
the senior administrator for service-learning on the Twin Cities
campus at that time, Vice Provost Craig Swan sponsored a team to attend the
Collaboration Summer Institute 2001 on Civic Engagement and return with
recommendations for developing "a multi-faceted, flexible program of
civic learning experiences encompassing varied formats and subject
matter." During the institute, numerous programs were reviewed for
consideration.

In 2002, Vice Provost Swan asked Laurel Hirt
of the Career and Community Learning Center to conduct a review of existing models/certificate
programs/minors at other institutions in the U.S. which recognize
students for ongoing substantial involvement in the community
throughout their undergraduate careers. Programs most closely reviewed
and consulted were the University of Utah Service-Learning Scholars Program, the Public Service Scholars Program of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Northwestern University's Service-learning Certificate Program (SLCP), Connecticut College's Community Action – Certificate, and the ServScript program at Florida State University.
Many aspects of the University of Utah's Service-Learning
Scholars Program were adapted and incorporated into the University of
Minnesota's Twin Cities program, which later came to be known as the
Community Engagement Scholars Program.

In 2003, Laurel Hirt began facilitating meetings of a working group to develop recommendations for the Community Engagement Scholars
Program. In the Fall of 2003, the Scholars Program became part of the
official activities of the Innovations Committee of COPE. By July of
2004, approval for the program was obtained from the Council of
Undergraduate Deans, the Senate Committee on Educational Policy (SCEP),
and the Regents of the University of Minnesota. In addition, a crucial
component to furthering the program's development included the
Community Service-Learning & Campus-Community Collaboration
Initiatives grants, coordinated by Minnesota Campus Compact and the
Minnesota Higher Education Services Office, and funded by the State of
Minnesota.

Administration

A Community Engagement Scholars
Advisory Board composed of students, faculty, staff, and community
representatives convene regularly to make decisions regarding unique
student situations and to advise the Career and Community Learning
Center (now called Community Service-Learning Center) on other decisions about the program. Members of the Advisory Board are advocates for the program, operating among faculty, staff, and
students within their colleges, the broader University, community
organizations, and in the public realm. In doing so, Advisory Board
representatives work to identify faculty and community organizations
willing to work with students in the Scholars program. The Advisory
Board also reviews the program bi-annually to ensure that the program
is meeting its designated goals.

In addition, the
Registrar's Office enables the Community Engagement Scholars Program to
track students' progress using its Degree Audit system, assists in
designating approved service-learning classes, and prints Community
Engagement Scholar notations on student's official academic transcript.